I is For It's A Wonderful Life

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 17 more times this month.

Film: It's A  Wonderful Life (1946)

Director: Frank Capra

By National Telefilm Associates - Original 1946 film, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18061926

It's A Wonderful Life is a film that needs no introduction. 

Positive Tomato: Capra remained true to classical Hollywood narrative, conceived and directed here, it is true, with almost hallucinatory skill. The scenes of tenderness are capable of penetrating the armor of even the most skeptical critical mind. Andre Bazin - L'ecran Francais

Original Trailer

Negative Tomato: Capra is an old-time movie craftsman, the master of every trick in the bag, and in many ways he is more at home with the medium than any other Hollywood director. But all of his details give the impression of contrived effect. Manny Farber - The New Republic

By National Telefilm Associates - Screenshot of the movie, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17631672

Resiliency: My favorite moment of resiliency in the movie is when the Bailey's use their wedding gift money to get their Building & Loan customers through the run on the bank. 

Top 100: It's Actually in the Top 1.  It's A Wonderful Life is my favorite movie of all time.  Starring Jimmy Stewart, my favorite actor of all time, and directed by Frank Capra, my favorite director of all time.  

By National Telefilm Associates - Screenshot of the movie, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17596045

A to Z Connection: This is the 2nd movie on my list directed by Frank Capra (Arsenic and Old Lace). 

Next Time: Just a movie about a revolutionary movement. 

She's A Wonderful Wife

 I have a routine when it comes to my A to Z  challenge posts. I schedule the time of the post for the date of the post.  For example, today is April 11th or numerically 4/11 so I would generally schedule my post for 4:11 a.m. so people could see it as they were checking their computers in the morning.  

This by the way is not an A to Z post but I am posting this at 4:11 in the morning because April 11th is a very significant day in my life.  It is the day I married my wife Amy. Today is almost as significant as that day as it is our 25th wedding anniversary.

I have scheduled my A to Z post at 4:11 p.m. It talks about my favorite movie It's A Wonderful Life.

In that film, the main character gets a glimpse of what life might have been like if he was never born and gets to realize what a wonderful life he had.

In December of 2005, our 3rd and final child was born and 2 days after they were released from the hospital I rushed Amy to the emergency room.  They did tests and her heart was working at 10% capacity.  I remember driving back from the emergency room to my house with 3 children between the ages of 3 days and 6 years old and I got a glimpse of what my life might look like If Amy was gone.  I prayed on the way home and asked God to restore her to health.

Thankfully  Amy was back to 100% use of her heart and her kidneys and was home to our family in a few short days. We were never given an adequate reason for the occurrence but we believe it was due to a lack of proper hydration after the C-section. 

I really didn't need an angel to show me the worth of my wife.  We were best friends for 8 years before she signed the Marry Dave Agreement. She takes the best care of me and our children.  Often preparing and perfecting foods for us that she doesn't even like to eat.  While she is just a sinner that said I Do, she is a loving, Godly influencer on me and our children.  

I have had the opportunity in the past 5 years to substitute teach in the same building where she works as a school psychologist.  I have never seen anyone take their job so seriously and still love on the children and show compassion and concern to the teachers, administration, and parents. We also have worked side by side the last 2 summers working concessions at a ballpark where she would bring sunshine even in a two-hour rain delay. 

So you see she really is a wonderful wife.  Happy Anniversary Amy.  You really do complete me.

A to Z Easter Egg: White House Hidden Figures Event

Earlier today, I posted about the film Hidden Figures. This video is a panel held at the White House after they showed Hidden Figures there...

H is For Hidden Figures

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 18 more times this month.

Film: Hidden Figures (2016) 

Director: Theodore Melfi

Trailer for Hidden Figures ...

Hidden Figures tells the story of Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan who were among a group of  African American Mathematicians who worked at NASA during the time that John Glenn orbited the earth. 

Positive Tomato: Hidden Figures puts the familiar period-piece lens on an overlooked part of space history without glossing over the ugly bits while still feeling hopeful for what science and technology can achieve when the best and the brightest can participate. Nathan Matisse - Ars Technica

Negative Tomato:

 Hidden Figures will likely satisfy on the actress' strength, but Taraji - and her audience - deserve better than focus-grouped pablum. Chris McCoy - Memphis Flyer

The film stars Taraji P Henson as Katharine Johnson, Janelle Monae as Mary Jackson, and Octavia Spencer as Dorothy Vaughn.  The cast includes Kevin Costner, Aldis Hodge, Jim Parsons, Kirsten Dunst, and Mahershala Ali.

Katherine Johnson - NASA 1966

Resiliency: Each of the 3 main women featured in this movie gives a clinic on resiliency.  It would be hard to boil that down into one moment or one quote.  

My mind always goes back to the scene where Mary Jackson has to go to court to convince a judge for her to take engineering classes at an all-white school.  She says to the judge:

I plan on being an engineer at Nasa, but I can't do that without taking them classes at that all-white high school, and I can't change the color of my skin, so I have no choice, but to be the first, which I can't do without you sir. Your honor, out of all the case you gonna hear today, which one is gonna matter hundred years from now? Which one is gonna make you the first?

Top 100: There is no uncertainty.  This movie is definitely in my top 100 films of all time.  The only question is where.  I would not be surprised if it makes it into the top 75.

A to Z Connections: This is the second film in the challenge to depict a space program (Gattaca).  It is also the fifth film to deal with a character or characters fighting against some sort of discrimination (Breaking Away, Chariots of Fire, 42, and Gattaca). 

Next Time: It's my favorite movie. 

G is For Gattaca

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 19 more times this month.

Film: Gattaca (1997)

.Director: Andre Niccol

By Unknown author - ProSieben MAXX HD, screenshot (15.06.2014), Public Domain, Link

Gattaca is a genre blending delight of a movie.  Part science fiction, part cultural critique, part noir;  Roger Ebert  rightly called it a thriller with ideas.  Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, and Jude Law head a stellar cast  in a work that is superbly written, beautifully captured on film, and blessed with an evocative score.  

 

Positive Tomato:  The writer- director crafts a paranoid discriminatory world out of ripped-from-the-headlines science. Adapting a noirish mood and an austere dystopian backdrop, it's the sort of Orwellian vision that could only exist in a movie. Brian Eggert - Deep Focus Review 

Negative Tomato:  You have to admire Nicol's humanizing agenda in movie terrain usually crowded with numbing technology and digital stereo explosions.  But jeez what a downer. Jan Stuart - The Advocate

Resiliency: Ethan Hawke,  who I remember best from his sweaty toothed madman poem in Dead Poets Society does a character study of resiliency in Gattaca.   Science conspired against him and he was told he would never reach for the stars.  But reach for the stars, he did and the degree that he did reach shows his resiliency and disregard for the imposed status quo. 

Top 100: Gattaca is a movie that I could see ranking any where between 75 and 125.  So we'll have to wait and see if Gattaca makes the list.

A to Z Connections: This is the 2nd science fiction film in the challenge (The Empire Strikes Back).

For more A to Z challenge click here.

Next Time: Honoring unsung heroes. 

F is For 42

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 20 more times this month.

Film: 42

Director: Brian Helgeland

I grew up loving baseball. I didn't think much of it.  Baseball was always there.  I could watch it on t.v. I could play it with my friends and I could dream about being my favorite players Dick Allen or Hank Aaron. 

These players were black and I was white. At that time I had never met a black person, but that didn't bother me.  My heroes were great baseball players and I wanted to be like them.  That I could do that is  a tribute to Branch Rickey, the general manager who helped integrate baseball and to Jackie Robinson who was the first black player in the modern era of baseball.

Image by Welcome to All ! ツ from Pixabay

Positive Tomato: Well-paced and often riveting, and manages to inspire while remaining true to sport and to the player who changed it and all of the professional sport forever. Bruce DeMara - Toronto Star

Negative Tomato:  42 is a hackneyed, cookie-cutter film that manages to tell us absolutely nothing about a turning point in American history. AP Kryza - Willamette Week

Chadwick Boseman shines as Robinson. He gives us a glimpse of how difficult it is to be the first. 

Harrison Ford transforms himself into Branch Rickey.

Resiliency: When Rickey tells Robinson his plan to have him be the first black player in baseball, they have this exchange...

Robinson: You want a player who doesn't have the guts to fight back?

Rickey: No. No. I want a player who has the guts not to fight back.

This resiliency to take the verbal abuse, the discrimination, to receive the hate mail and death threats is shown scene after scene.  

Top 100: Regardless of whether it makes my top 100 (I imagine it will) it will always be my top 42.

A to Z Connections: This is the 3rd sports film (Breaking Away and Chariots of Fire) and the second film with Harrison Ford (The Empire Strikes Back). 

Next Time: G is for Gene Noir 

E is For Empire

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other a to z challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 21 more times this month.

Film: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Director: Irvin Kershner

Star Wars Begin Again

   

Old friends are back.

Too back new friends are

Darth Darth Darth Darth Darth Darth Darth Darth Darth

Positive Tomato: The Empire Strikes Back displays the same soaring imagination that made Star Wars a filmmaking classic; most other space movies seem clunky and earthbound in comparison. Bob Thomas - Associated Press 

By Bogaerts, Rob / Anefo - [1] Dutch National Archives, The Hague, Fotocollectie Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANeFo), 1945-1989, Nummer toegang 2.24.01.05 Bestanddeelnummer 931-2164, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27409421

Negative Tomato:  A Stars Wars that has not only lost much of its humor and charm but more important a good deal of its innocence, traveling in the process light years away from the shiny magnitude of its original world  Joy Gould Boyum - Wall Street Journal 

If you look closely you can see the Millenium Falcon avoiding being eaten.

Star Wars Episode 5 is in my opinion the best sequel ever made. How do you follow up on a film that revolutionizes the movie industry?  By continuing to revolutionize.

Resiliency: The empire is very resilient when it comes to replacing admirals. 

Top 100: This movie is definitely in my top 100.  The question for me becomes do I put it before or after te original Star Wars. I think what I did with my original 100 was place them back to back which makes the order less consequential.  I enjoy watching Empir more than I watch New Hope, but as I explained to someone at C2E2 (A midwest Comicon-like event) I would rank Star Wars just a little higher than Empire since Star Wars paved the way for it.  When I make my official top 100 later this year we will see if I have the courage of my convictions.  

Next Time: F is for First 

For more A to Z Challenge click here.

D is For Dave

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

 

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other a to z challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 22 more times this month.

Film: Dave (1993)

Director: Ivan Reittman

Presidential movies were all the rage in the 1990s. (The American President, Air Force One, JFK, Nixon, Absolute Power). In this one,  a presidential body double makes the most of what was supposed to be a temporary job.

 

 Dave (Official Traier)

 

Positive Tomato:  A genial, expertly played political comedy proves that the spirit of Mr. Smith still lives.  Richard Schickel - Time Magazine

Negative Tomato: As Kline begins to take his presidential duties seriously, the comedy seeps out, a listless civic-mindedness drifts in like the fog off the Potomac. Leah Rozen - People Magazine

If you've never seen this film. the 30th anniversary is a good time to jump on board.  This may be Kevin Klines best film and with a resume filled with hits gems like Cry Freedom and Silverado that is certainly saying something.  Charles Grodin is in only a few scenes but does a great job of showing the uniqueness of a guy like Dave.

Resiliency: The balancing the budget subplot of Dave is a great snapshot in Resiliency.

In the film, Dave visits a homeless shelter with the President's wife.  When the homeless shelters are stripped of funding, Dave is told by the President's draconian chief of staff (played ever so malevolently by Frank Langella) that he can keep the shelters by adding 650 million dollars to the budget.

In the next few scenes, Dave attempts to do just that and even brings his accountant, the aforementioned Grodin, to help him with the gargantuan task. 

To watch this scene and read more about its resiliency factor click here.

Top 100: One of my criteria for top 100 films lies in its rewatchability. I remember enjoying this movie increasingly upon every viewing.  For that reason alone, I cannot imagine a Top 100 film list of mine with Dave, not on it.

For more D in the A to Z Challenge, click here.

Next Time: E Equals Evil Empire

Hall & Oates Chariots of Fire Parody SCTV

Earlier Today I posted my C film for this month A to Z challenge.  This clip from SCTV always makes me laugh.       I hope you enjoy it.  

C is For Chariots of Fire

A to Z Challenge 2023

    A Month At The Movies

 

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other a to z challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 23 more times this month. 

Film: Chariots of Fire (1981)

Director: Hugh Hudson

 

Photo by David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

I found out recently that the Chariots of Fire orchid is a hybrid.  The film Chariots of Fire is a hybrid of sorts as well.  Part biography, part sports movie.  It is also not one but two bio-pics grown together.  Eric Liddle and Harold Abrahams.  They may be competitors under the same flag in the Olympics, but I do not feel they needed to compete for screen time.  Each character's story was given enough time to blossom. 

Liddle is a man called by God whose Olympic ambitions and his dedication to God's plans are sometimes running in opposition. Abrahams is the son of a Lithuanian Jew who runs to overcome the prejudice of post-WWI Britain.  

Positive Tomato: This is a beautiful, unhurried film that unfolds a vision of the past that reminds us there once existed a time of innocence and tradition.  Dann Gire - Daily Herald

Negative Tomato: Cross and Charleson are capable leads, which makes the screenwriter's refusal to focus their characters all the more aggravating. Michael Maza - Arizona Republic

Resiliency: There are many excellent moments of resiliency in this film.  I have decided to show you one and tell you about another.

The first one takes place in the movie at a meet where Harold Abrahams sees Eric Little run for the first time.

  

 

The second resiliency moment I'd like to document happens in the aftermath of a race where Little has just beaten Abrahams.  

After the race, Abrahams is disappointed and is sitting in the stands unable to be consoled by his girlfriend.  He finally says to her, If I can't win, I won't race.  She replies back, If you won't race, you can't win.  

I love the symmetry of that moment and how it ties into what Abrahams witnessed Little do in the previous scene. He got up and finished the race.  

Top 100:  Chariots of Fire is one of my top 5 favorite movies of all time. In 2011 when I posted my top 10 here it was in 5th place.  In 2017 when I made my top 100 list it had moved past Casablanca into 4th place.  When I finish revising the list later this year (hopefully) It should still be 4th or 5th.  

A to Z Connections: This is the second sports movie on the list so far.  The first one of course was yesterday's Breaking Away.  The star of Breaking Away, Dennis Christopher portrays an American Olympic runner in Chariots of Fire. 

Picture and Quote:

I believe God made me for a purpose, for China,but he

                                        also made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure.

For more of the letter C in the A to Z challenge, click here.

I will be posting a special A to Z Chariots of Fire theme Easter Egg a little bit later in the day.

Next Time: D is for Doppelganger

B is for Breaking Away

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

.

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other a to z challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 24 more times this month. 

Film: Breaking Away (1979)

Director: Peter Yates

By www.impawards.com, Fair use, Link 

Breaking Away is a coming-of-age sports movie about four friends from Bloomington, Indiana.  The movie features Dennis Christopher, Daniel Stern, Dennis Quaid, and Jackie Earle Hailey.   Dennis Quaid and Daniel Stern are probably the most famous of the 4 now, but at the time I only recognized Jackie Earle Hailey from the Bad News Bears films.

The movie takes place in the late '70s in Bloomington, Indiana, a college town in the midwest.  Christopher plays the main character Dave Stoller. The movie takes place in the year after Stoller and his 3 friends graduate from high school and are spending their gap year hanging around together when Stoller isn't cycling around Indiana or tormenting his father by cosplaying an Italian cyclist.  

The movie does a great job of confronting the divides between social classes and generations.  It has humor, introspection, romance, and intrigue while being true to its David vs. Goliath roots.  The American Film Institute (AFI) has placed on two of its lists of top 100 films.  In 2006 it was named #8 on the list of most inspirational movies.  In 2008 The AFI named it 8th on their list of sports moves.   

                                           ( Left To Right ) Christopher, Hailey,  Stern, Quaid

(Photo by John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

 This is both a well-written and well-acted movie as this monologue by Dennis Quaid will attest.

 

 

 Positive Tomato: I seriously can't imagine anyone not liking it. Gene Siskel - Chicago Tribune

Negative Tomato: This timeworn material probably should work, but it doesn't really since, most of the film's angst and conflict seem calculated. Jeremy Heilman - MovieMartyr.com

The movie was filmed entirely in Bloomington, Indiana.  If you are interested this video goes back and shows some of the main places where it was filmed.

 

Resiliency: Resiliency is sometimes pre-meditated as near the end of the movie when Dave and his friends tape Dave's feet to the bike pedals so as the commentators observe they can no longer switch riders for the duration of the race.  That scene is a visual reminder to me of  the end of Hebrews 12:1 , "And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."

Top 100:  When I last made my top 100 list, I wasn't really sure what to do with Breaking Away.  I loved it when it first came out but when I saw it last 20 years ago or so I remember thinking it hadn't aged well.  I watched it again earlier this year and it really resonated with me again.  It would definitely make my top 100 this time out and wouldn't be surprised at all if it broke into the top 50. 

For more A to Z challenge click here

 Next Time: C is for Champion

Last 5 Next 10

 How do I spend my off day on the a to z challenge? By releasing 2 non a-z related posts.  It is time for the first official last 4 next 10 of the year.

LAST FIVE

The Annotated Pride & Prejudice

Jane Austen

Annotated and Edited by David M. Shapard

Borrowed from libray.

Read to myself

. 

Read myself borrowed from library.

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club

 Dorothy L. Sayers

Borrowed from Hoopla read from Ipad.

Pure Drivel

Steve Martin

Borrowed from Hoopls listened to on phone

Strong Poison

Dorothy L. Sayers

Borrowed from Hoopla listened to on phone

An Old Fashioned Girl

Louisa May Alcott

Family Owned

Read to myself

NEXT TEN

The Last Juror- John Grisham

The Last Sweet Mile - Allen Levi

Write Better - Andrew T. Le Peau

Gentle and Lowly - Dane Ortlund

Luke - The Gospel of Amazement - Michael Card

What To Do on Thursday - Jay E. Adams. 

75 Readings - An Anthology

Heroes of the Faith - Gene Fedele

The Five Red Herrings - Dorothy L. Sayers

Alone - Megan E. Freeman

Concise Theology -  J.I. Packer

On The 40th day of the year I had read 8 books.  52 days later I have finished 5 more.  So with 1/4 of the year finished I have finished 13 books.  In 52 days I have gone from a projected 74 books at years end to a projected 51.57.  With the Challenge this month I may not finish a lot of books and my projections may continue to plummet, but hopefully I'll get back into the swing after the challenge.

March Stats

 I am taking a scheduled rest from posting on the A to Z challenge today.  I have been posting my monthly stats the first day of the new month, but since yesterday was the first day of the challenge. and I knew I'd have a respite today, I decided to wait until today for the stats post.  I posted on my blog 8 times last month.  I had posted 9 each in January and February, so my average for the year has been pretty much the same.  At this rate I should have 104 posts by the end of the year.

My average posts per month for the past quarter have been 8.63 rounding up to 9.  Over the past 18 months I have posted 167 times for an average of 9.28 posts per month.  If you take away my most prolific month (April 2022 - 28 posts) and my most abysmal (November 2021 - 1 post) my average  goes fown to 8.63 post per month which is nearly identical to my output this quarter.

With my A to Z post yesterday this is the 30th month in a row that I have posted at least once on this blog.

I should be back later today with a second post regarding my last 5 books read since I was up past midnight finishing An Old Fashioned Girl.  I have some work to do on the challenge as well today and make sure my next few posts are ready for publication.  

A is for Arsenic

A to Z Challenge 2023

A Month At The Movies

Hello and welcome to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other a to z challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 25 more times this month. 

Film: Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Director: Frank Capra

By Photographer not credited - <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/stream/cinemundial28unse#page/156/mode/1up">Cine Mundial, April 1943</a>, Public Domain, Link

Arsenic and Old Lace premiered on September 23rd, 1944.  This was exactly 20 years before I premiered.  It's a funny story actually, my Dad and my 9 months pregnant Mom were at an Arsenic and Old Lace 20th anniversary party when ... No, Just kidding.  

 Cary Grant stars in this dark comedy/ screwball comedy that was the first Frank Capra film I ever watched.  The basic gist of the film is that Mortimer Brewster (played by Grant) is a theatre critic and avowed bachelor who at the beginning of the film marries the girl next door to his boyhood home in Brooklyn.  

"The Fun" begins when Grant discovers his beloved salt of the earth aunts are actually serial murderers and is then also reunited with a few other of his sanity-challenged relatives. 

Positive Tomato: It's not mere hyperbole to state that Frank Capra's Arsenic and Old Lace ranks as one of the funniest films ever made. Matt Brunson - Film Frenzy 

Negative Tomato: Not one of Capra's best. Grant is too hammy and out of control, and without Boris Karloff as Jonathan Brewster, the joke is lost. Bob Bloom - Journal and Courier (Lafayette, Indiana)

I really enjoyed this movie watching it on T.V. as a kid.  In recent viewing, I found it a little long and a little uneven but still enjoyed it and would probably watch it again, especially with folks who have not seen it before.  

Resiliency: Mortimer Brewster shows a lot of resiliency throughout the film trying to figure out how to best deal with his family situation since he literally knows where the bodies are buried.  

Top 100: I don't think this will make my top 100 list. I'm a Big Frank Capra fan and while it's not one of my favorite Capra films, I do think that maybe it would make its way onto the bottom 100 of my top 200 film list.  

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Next Time: B is for Bike Movie

A to Z Themes for Blogs on My Blogroll

 

2512477 © Marek Zuraw | Dreamstime.com

Over the past few weeks I've posted about my A to Z Theme reveal for the upcoming A to Z challenge and I've posted a little about blogs that appear on my various blogrolls on my home page.  I'd like to combine those today and tell you about blogs I have on my blogrolls that are participating in this year's challenge and tell you about their themes.

One of my favorite blogs is Sue's Trifles.  Her theme this year is revisiting her theme from 2013 where she combined alliteration with content to help people learn more about Christ and Christianity.  I am really looking forward to her posts this year.  

When Sue isn't doing the A to Z challenge she mostly posts book reviews which is why Sue's Trifles can be found in my Writing, Poetry, Publishing, and Book blogs blogroll.

The next blog has recently moved from my Bloggy Blogs (more on that soon) blogroll to my Writing, Poetry, Publishing and Book Blogs blogroll where it fits the category much better.  hdhstory.net is using the theme of an adventure at the Kingdom of Selat.  I am looking forward to the "tales" that  will be found there.

Janet's Smiles is another blog I follow.  Her theme this year is the Illuminate SF - Festival of Light. I have Janet's Smiles in my Bloggy Blogs blogroll.  A bloggy blog is a blog that kind of sprays to all fields.  

I got the inspiration for the title bloggy blogs from a friend of my son when they were in high school together.  She and her family attend a local megachurch which doesn't really look like a church at all.  I was driving my son and his friends to an outing and we passed a local church that looked like your typical steeple and triangular roof church.  She wasn't looking at it at first and then when she saw it, she said "Look! A churchy church." 

John Holton who is a member of the A to Z team hosts a blog called TheSound of One Hand Typing. He can also be found on my Bloggy Blogs blogroll. His theme this year is really jazzy.  It makes my heart jingle and my mouth ajar in contemplation. He is going to juxtapose the letter j in each of the 26 words he's choosing for the challenge.  Well, that's what he said, hopefully, he didn't perjure himself.

The 5th and (so far) final of my blogroll blogs participating in the challenge this year is Wolf of Words.  This is the 4th time the wolf is using the theme of fan fiction.  I am especially looking forward to the Scooby Doo/Dr. Who Mash-up.

The A to Z Challenge starts this Saturday!

5499560 © Heysues23 | Dreamstime.com

A Fitting End for the Oscars

 

Photo Credit: Landon Nordeman A-Frame

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